A Collection of Ranger's Apprentice Theories

Fellas, is it Gay to Love Women?

Generally, women in Western mainstream media have, for a long time, been portrayed as flat characters. From obsessing over what look will attract a rich man for marriage, to being a feisty girl unlike any others, attempting to write woman rather than a person who identifies as a woman has pitfalls where she's too people-pleasing or too independent to feel like a fully flushed out personality. Men's character arcs often leave more room to grow outside of the two extremes, where getting the girl is a given so long as he confidently moves forward in the world and concludes a philosophical debate. Plots take for granted that no matter how the woman is treated, if the man loves her, she will love him in return—what else is a woman to do when she can't open her own bank account?

In the context of the Ranger's Apprentice women, Flanagan followed a pattern: pretty and blonde in a role where a woman might be barely tolerated by sexist men. In fact, he mentions in 'The Sorcerer of the North' that playing the ditzy blonde stereotype is how the women in the Diplomat Service can go under the radar, not to be taken seriously.

He stunts their romantic lives in favor of dedication to the job, in contrast to Will's subplot of interest in a local Seacliff girl ('The Sorcerer of the North'). The main three women are all assigned a Ranger to have a crush on, and then continue waiting in their virginal pining for that Ranger to get their act together, getting to the point where their own offspring are impossible. Pauline is romantically interested in Halt, and him in her, but she waits decades until he is going to be lonely without Will around the cabin ('Erak's Ransom'). Alyss dies to make Will into a grumpy old man for 'A New Beginning.' It is Alyss who dreamt of marrying Will since they were children ('The Burning Bridge'), and is willing to wait around for him. Meanwhile, Will is off romancing Delia, and Flanagan ended it through marrying her off quickly rather than have her simply not interested in a man who ghosted her ('The Sorcerer of the North'; 'The Siege of Macindaw'). Again, Jenny and Gilan are both too career focused to get married—a healthy agreement neither is willing to give up their life completely for romance. In 'Dinner for Five,' Jenny's restaurant is referred to as her baby, she has an entire paragraph dedicated to how pretty she is and how the butchers like flirting with her, and Flanagan wrote what boils down to a crack at mature women needing reassurance about their physical desirability from men. Not all women are or need to be interested in romance, but it is not always a one or the other situation between personal and professional life, where the only option is to love someone always out of town for months on end, especially in Jenny's case.

The women's lives revolve around men in the main series, from Alyss being included in 'The Siege of Macindaw' so Will could save her from hypnotism by telling her he loves her, to a cat fight over Will in 'The Emperor of Nihon-Ja' even though Alyss and Cassandra are secure in their respective relationships otherwise. This is out of what character Flanagan gives them, establishing early in 'The Ruins of Gorlan' that men have a tendency to have hot-headed fights, while women are more willing to talk. Maeve, an innkeeper in 'The Inkwell and the Dagger' is brought into the plot to deliver information to Gilan. To do so, Flanagan found it necessary to describe her as friendly and attractive, and firmly against feminism, looking down on local women doing the manual work their late husbands used to complete—ending by flirting with Gilan because she needs a man lying beside her at night. This further indicates a conscious or subconscious bias from Flanagan thinking women either want to be married and spoiled by their husband, or want a career and their feminine wiles can't help attracting them to a super cool suave Ranger. Although Jenny is said to be pretty at her current weight in 'The Ruins of Gorlan,' Will makes sure to comment positively on her weight loss in 'The Kings of Clonmel' to which Jenny preens, and he thinks Gilan will find the skinnier Jenny more attractive, rather than be concerned that Jenny has less time to eat running her own business.

The men save Araluen, or one of Araluen's allies, from civil disputes, invasions, and so on, all while appreciating the company of women along the way. The most "progressive" men are putting themselves in dangerous situations and heavily discouraging the women from participating, sending Cassandra and Alyss on what they think is a safe mini mission in 'The Emperor of Nihon-Ja' to keep them off the frontlines. Halt even has semi-creepy thoughts about the young women in his company—for example, he enjoys being doted on by "pretty girls" in 'The Emperor of Nihon-Ja,' and in 'The Burning Bridge' lamenting being thirty years too old to have an appropriate romantic relationship with Alyss because she kissed his cheek in a platonic manner to pass on to someone else. Had Crowley not been a friend, Halt might have fought him for the right to court Pauline ('The Tournament at Gorlan'), rather than ask who she preferred, if she liked either of them. Rangers only began accepting girls as apprentices due to low male prospects and to keep the Crown Princess temporarily under supervision during her rebellious teenage years; to date, Maddie may be the only girl Ranger apprentice, and is expected to be Cassandra's heir and future leader of the country, eventually pulling her away from Ranger duties unless she abdicates.